Trees, Walking to School and some trees in Listowel Town Park

Caragh Lake

Photo by Chris Grayson

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Local Marriage Customs

Marriages in the Good Old Days as recounted by Lillie O'Connor of Kanturk in the school's folklore collection.

Lillie remembers match making and straw boys, two aspects of the wedding that have fallen into disuse.
She says that the matchmaker was called "The Gander". Does anyone know was this a nickname for every matchmaker or was it a specific man in the Kanturk area?

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The Wood and the Trees

Have you noticed how so many place names in Listowel  have tree names, words like grove or wood in their title. There are some really lovely old trees in town and the Listowel Tidy Town's committee is busy adding new ones.

A casualty of the recent storms.

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To School Through the Streets

Do you remember I posted this photo last week of secondary school girls walking to school. Well it opened memory's floodgates for some blog followers. Kay Caball remembers walking to school, walking home for her dinner and walking back again all in a 30 minute lunch break.

Many people of a certain age remember cycling miles to school, if they lived in the country and were not lucky enough to have relatives in town who would keep them for the week. Boarding with families in town was quite common as well. Many pupils stayed with families in town during the school week and went home only at the weekends. This was a less expensive option than boarding school. Better off families sent their teenagers to boarding schools and often these did not allow pupils home until the end of term.

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Climate Change...Transition Kerry is addressing the problem

If you are interested in finding out what we can do about this urgent global problem, this just might be the place for you next Saturday.